Producer Jonah Greenberg frames this as the ultimate underdog story, claiming it is 'literally the war on drugs we actually won but which no one knows about.' He pitches it as a 'Serpico'-style narrative about people driven by purpose, finally receiving the recognition it deserves after being ignored in favor of Italian mob stories.
The development history reveals a stubborn passion: Greenberg spent seven years developing the project, driven by a desire to highlight agents who 'lived by a certain code.' He admits that in the 1980s, Chinese cases 'simply wasn’t considered as sexy' compared to the Mafia, noting that even he was too busy watching 'Miami Vice' to notice the real heroism happening in the shadows.
The series is based on the 180-page nonfiction book 'The Incredible Story of D.E.A. Group 41 & The Rise and Fall of the Asian Heroin Trade,' co-written by Greenberg, Marc Iserlis, and Aidan Swift. It consists of 10 episodes (45 minutes each), opens in New York in 1986, and targets real-life figures like Johnny 'Onionhead' Eng and Khun Sa.
While Derek Tsang’s attachment brings star power to the production, this is fundamentally a passion project by Jonah Greenberg, who is determined to shine a light on a forgotten chapter of the DEA’s history that the public and the media largely overlooked.
Derek Tsang, the director behind the global Netflix hit '3 Body Problem' and the Oscar-nominated 'Better Days,' has attached himself to a new true-crime drama series titled 'Group 41.' The project, which Tsang will direct and executive produce, focuses on the first Asian-American squad at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The announcement was made at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, marking the latest move in the filmmaker’s diverse career.
The series is developed by Jonah Greenberg’s Salty Pictures and is based on a 180-page nonfiction book co-written by Greenberg, Marc Iserlis, and Aidan Swift. The book, titled 'The Incredible Story of D.E.A. Group 41 & The Rise and Fall of the Asian Heroin Trade,' is scheduled for publication next year.
Greenberg, a former managing director of CAA’s China office known for producing Zhang Yimou’s 'Shadow,' has been developing this project for seven years. He argues that the story was ignored because it 'simply wasn’t considered as sexy' to work Chinese cases in the 1980s. The 10-episode series, featuring 45-minute episodes, opens in New York City in 1986.
While the DEA’s attention was fixed on Colombian cocaine cartels and the Mafia’s 'Five Families,' a scrappy crew of Asian-American agents formed DEA Group 41. They teamed up with a hard-charging Irish prosecutor nicknamed 'The Dragon Lady' to chase the No. 4 heroin supply chain. Over the next decade, this underfunded unit evolved into an elite international task force, tackling targets like Johnny 'Onionhead' Eng, a brutal Chinatown gangster, and Johnny Kon, a Hong Kong boss with a billion-dollar triad.
Greenberg emphasizes that neither the media nor the DEA prioritized Asian cases at the time. 'People were busy watching ‘Miami Vice’ (myself chief among them!) and watching Rudy Giuliani convict the Italian mobsters,' Greenberg said. He describes the series as 'literally the war on drugs we actually won but which no one knows about.' The show aims to explore immigration, prejudice, and the true cost of the American Dream, with narratives from both sides of the law.
Greenberg notes that unlike modern law enforcement, which benefits from surveillance technology, agents in the 1980s went 'deep' undercover where 'the danger to cops and informants is real.' The project features co-production support from Taiwan’s Each Other Films, co-founded by Tiffany Yu-chia Chen, and executive production from former CAA TV co-head Adam Berkowitz. At TCCF, the team is exploring regional incentives in Taiwan and Asia to offset the budget and secure distribution.
They aim to have financing lined up before pitching to U.S. platforms next year, after finding a writer-showrunner and potentially attaching cast. Greenberg sees potential for multiple seasons, with Khun Sa, a Golden Triangle warlord with a 20,000-strong narco-army, looming as a 'Colonel Kurtz-like' final target.
